Article 131 is a crucial provision in the Constitution of India that defines the exclusive and original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. This jurisdiction is the power of the Supreme Court to hear and determine a dispute in the first instance, to the exclusion of any other court. The provision was incorporated to establish a neutral adjudicatory mechanism, serving as a cornerstone for maintaining the federal balance between the Union and the States. The draft Article 109, which became Article 131, was debated in the Constituent Assembly on June 3, 1949, and October 14, 1949.
The mechanism of Article 131 works by allowing the Supreme Court to hear disputes involving a question of law or fact on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends. The parties to the dispute must be the Government of India and one or more States, or the Government of India and State(s) on one side and other States on the other, or between two or more States. The jurisdiction is limited, as it does not extend to disputes of a purely political nature or those arising out of pre-Constitution treaties or agreements.
This provision is intrinsically connected to the concept of Indian federalism and the constitutional division of powers, particularly those outlined in the Seventh Schedule. It is distinct from the Supreme Court's appellate or advisory jurisdiction (Article 143). A key limitation is that disputes relating to inter-state river water are specifically excluded and are instead addressed under Article 262. While the core provision has remained, its application has been tested recently, with States like Kerala and Chhattisgarh invoking it to challenge the constitutional validity of central laws, such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The question of whether a State can challenge a central law under Article 131 has seen conflicting judicial views, leading to the issue being referred to a larger bench in the State of Jharkhand Vs State of Bihar, 2015 case.